Friday Fifteen

I'm pretty sure stars were still out when we left for our run this morning.  And if the moon was in the habit of appearing 'round these parts this time of year, we would have seen that too for sure.  It was 5:30 in the morn' and we were headed out for our run.  A decent enough wind blew in our faces from the south as we headed for points unknown.  Unknown because we weren't entirely sure where our turnaround was, we just had a general idea.
Geof had the fun idea to run 15 miles before work today so that we could go home and just relax tonight before our long run tomorrow morning, rather than doing a double.  I dug it and agreed to not hit snooze when the alarm went off at 4:25 a.m.

Waking up was surprisingly easy given how awesome we slept last night.  I could get used to going to bed at 9:00 :)

The forecast called for raining cats and dogs but we decided to play roulette with mother nature and leave our rain jackets at home.  Luckily, the wind from the south was relatively warm and I didn't hate it the way I usually hate wind.  The lights along the path were spotty but at least some of them were on.  The Canadian geese were perched along the edge of the path, waiting for the sky to lighten before venturing into the choppy waters below them for their morning float.  A pair of seagulls were duking it out over a fresh caught fish beneath the eerie glow of one of the lamps.  A few other daring souls ran by in a mad dash to beat the rain.

As the sky lightened we could see the ominously dark clouds hanging over the city, but we were heading south and apparently away from the saturated grip of mother nature.  The legs and mind felt good and we both reveled in the fact that we were doing this before work.  If we did nothing else all day we would at least have achieved this much.

I worked some numbers in my head to try to determine our turnaround point (fact: I should never "work" numbers...it never ends up good/accurate).  We decided to turn beyond what we thought might be 15, just in case as anything less was just unacceptable this day.  With the wind at our backs, though considerably less intense, we headed for home and towards the foreboding clouds.  We felt a few drops here and there, but nothing threatening.  The pace picked up some and it was welcome finally.  I sensed some pep returning to my stride.  I also sensed the need to release some of the water I downed before heading out for the run.  This need only intensified after two attempts to utilize proper facilities (they were locked!) were foiled.  A large evergreen became the focus of my attention.

And then all was right with the world again.

Before we knew it, we were rounding the last museum of the campus and only had a couple more miles to go.  I could feel it in my glutes and my stomach began to rumble.  Hunger was upon me.  We were now enveloped in dark clouds, giving the impression of night, and the rain trickled ever so slightly.  The ground was saturated, evidence we had dodged a bullet momentarily.  As we crossed the bridge one last time and zig-zagged our way through traffic, emerging from the cover of the highway overhead, the rain began to fall in earnest.  I couldn't help but smile.  So close!  We crossed the lot, rounded the last corner before finally making it to cover.  Barely wet compared to some of our running compatriots on this morning. 

Turns out we got in just shy of 16 miles in just over 2 hours.  A darn fine way to start a Friday I do say. 

And, I'm glad we left the rain jackets at home this time :)

Paige, out.